Retail briefs

Kmart Corp. last week reiterated its intention to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy under a "fast-track reorganization" by July 2003 and said it will complete a comprehensive, five-year business plan by the end of this year. The company also announced it will file its reorganization plan with the bankruptcy court on or before Feb. 24. "This timeline is aggressive and will require a lot of hard work in a relatively short period of time, but should be doable," said James Adamson, chairman and ceo. The company also said that comp sales trended up slightly in September and the first half of October, primarily due to promotions. Kmart said its availability under its debtor-in-possession facility as of Sept. 25 was $1.5 billion.

At Target Corp.'s analyst meeting last week, the company said that it is conservatively managing its credit business and is committed to the SuperTarget format. Target ended the second quarter with gross accounts receivable of $4.6 billion, an increase of just less than $2 billion from the same period last year, according to a Lehman Brothers report, and Lehman expects that to grow to $6.1 billion by the end of the year, and $7.0 to $7.5 billion by the end of 2003. Target Corp. also reiterated that the SuperTarget format is an important component of Target's strategy, Lehman said.